Forget Watson – Play rock-paper-scissors against a machine (NYT)

Imagine this: Arnold Schwarzenegger travels back in time to defeat Sarah Connor, mother of the future rebel leader John Connor. But instead of a shotgun, his only weapons are … rock, paper and scissors.

Sound boring? It’s not. The machine hand you compete against represents a sophisticated computer program that can learn your patterns and strategies. The longer you play, the more it learns — and the harder the game gets.

And it gets really hard if, instead of choosing the “beginner” difficulty level, you choose “advanced.” Then you’re playing roshambo against a computer that has learned overall patterns of all the human opponents it has faced since going live on NYTimes.com Saturday.

Check it out at NYTimes.com. The game may not be as sophisticated as IBM’s Watson on “Jeopardy” last month, but it’s much more accessible. And much more of a fun time-killer for your Monday back at work.